When it comes to visual storytelling, Fable Wedding Films co-founders Jonty Gardner and Sherman Lo don’t underestimate the value of their own story. Jonty shares why adding a personal touch to marketing sets the videography business apart from their competitors.
“Anyone can take good photos, but at the end of the day, it’s who’s behind the camera that matters to your couples,” he says. “One thing we do, which is a bit unique and out there, is we have our faces as the front thumbnail of our marketing and social media. Other wedding companies will usually just use a really nice image of a wedding couple.
“But the thing is, every wedding videography business can take an awesome shot of a couple —everyone’s shootings in 4K now and everything’s high res, high quality — and it kind of all almost looks the same.”
So what’s something different that no one else has?
“It’s our faces! No one has Jonty, no one has Sherman, so we just try to add a personal touch to our branding.
“When people click on our profile, they learn about who we are a little bit first, but then they also see the quality of our films as well, which is why people will enquire with us.”
The Sydney uni mates launched their videography business, Fable Wedding Films, towards the end of 2019. With the support of Easy Weddings, the pair have been able to realise their dream of telling the visual story of couples on their wedding day into a full-time career, despite the setbacks the industry faced while they were starting out.
“We absolutely love wedding filmmaking!” Jonty says. “When we were initially starting out, we never thought this could become a career or we could actually build a lifelong pathway of a business. And here we are, three years later, and we are just growing and we love it.”
In their three years in business, Jonty and Sherman have scaled the company to a size where they need to hire other shooters and contractors to work with them to meet demand. But it’s still so important for the pair to have that personal visibility in their branding and be available for their clients.
“They email us, they can talk to me, they can talk to Sherman and they feel like they already know who we are,” Jonty adds.
His advice to other filmmakers is to use their website to showcase not only your product but a bit of yourself too. Use your platforms to talk about yourself, explain why you are passionate about what you do and show who you are.
“We are not afraid to smile in front of the camera and have a few pictures of us. It just builds that credibility. Couples want to see you’re a human being,” he says.
Why is personal presence on social media and branding important?
At Easy Weddings, we always remind our suppliers that people buy from people. So we encourage wedding businesses to heed Jonty’s advice and connect with couples on a personal level by having a presence on social media beyond examples of their product or service.
While it’s important to showcase your best work, adding a personal touch to your marketing platforms creates brand authenticity and encourages a deeper connection with potential couples, which speaks volumes.
Weddings are such an emotional purchase, so it’s no surprise that feeling “a personal connection” is one of the top values influencing couples to book their wedding suppliers (behind pricing, images of previous weddings and reviews).
Couples want to feel comfortable with their suppliers and trust they will bring their wedding vision to life. Vendors who demonstrate that early on in the wedding planning journey are better placed to build that connection than others who may offer a similar product or service.
With 70% of couples wanting their wedding filmed, videographers could be missing out on those bookings if they don’t stand out.
Jonty’s tips for adding personality to your social media
Jonty admits he is more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, but knows connecting with his key audience is worth a bit of awkwardness.
“Once you do it, it just gets easier over time,” he says. “And you can look up tips and tricks online, and do retakes. You don’t need to be out there making viral TikToks or whatever, but definitely, definitely try it. Try something a little bit out there and it would only benefit your business.
“Even if there’s something silly that happens while you’re working, sharing the behind-the-scenes moments shows you are a human being, you’re not a robot.”
5 Tips for achieving success in the wedding industry
Aside from adding a personal touch to your branding, Jonty offers the following tips to other emerging videography businesses:
1. Put in the effort to deliver a strong product
“You can get caught up with marketing and TikTok, but fundamentally make sure you have a really strong product to demonstrate the service you’re delivering. Make that your forefront and let the work speak for itself,” he says.
“We spend more time than most with the groom or with the bride on the day, in the morning to ensure we get the best end product.”
2. Get to know your couples
The customer experience is so important. Value how you talk to your clients and give them a great experience beyond the product.
In the 2023 Wedding Industry Report, couples said the area that their videographers let them down the most was in their experience, not the end result.
Some couples told us their videographer didn’t communicate with them on the day, and others said theirs did not work well with their photographer. However, couples also praised videographers who were flexible with meeting on Zoom or Facetime, and valued those who provided multiple styles of videos to choose from.
3. Listen to the advice from the Easy Weddings Partnership Managers
“Belinda and the team at Easy Weddings truly have the best research, advice, stats and care any vendor needs for the wedding industry,” Jonty says.
“Easy Weddings isn’t just simply a wedding directory page. They are an incredible team behind that, offering the best marketing experience to get a return on investment. They understand how to market businesses because they’re Australia’s leading wedding directory.”
4. Utilise Easy Weddings resources like the annual industry report
“The annual report you guys do is awesome, like super awesome! It’s just great having an industry report and stats that you can reference,” Jonty says.
“And it was really cool that our photo was featured in the videography section for our category.”
5. Ask your couples for reviews
Reviews speak volumes about marketing your business to potential future couples. They are one of the top three factors influencing couples to book their wedding suppliers.
How Easy Weddings is supporting Fable Wedding Films’ success
Despite joining Easy Weddings during the peak of COVID, Fable’s bookings grew exponentially since coming online, Jonty says.
“We simply would not be on the path we are right now without them. We’ve signed up to other directories, but we get the most traffic through Easy Weddings.”
The added SEO visibility Easy Weddings is bringing the business is a significant factor to this success, he says.
“You guys just really rock with the SEO stuff! I think that has just made our business grow so, so much. SEO is so hard for businesses to get right. You can make the best quality videos in the world, but someone who makes average videos and understands the SEO game better is they’re going to be seen more on Google. So it’s really great to know that Easy weddings take care of a lot of that stuff and we get seen so much more now.
“A lot of people just say, ‘we heard from you from Google’ but then when we dive deep into it, they actually heard from us from Easy Weddings.”
Having a Premium listing on Easy Weddings has also helped Fable Wedding Films be seen higher up the list for their category, to further increase the business’ visibility.
For a closer look at how Easy Weddings has helped put them into the picture, download the Fable Wedding Films Case Study, here.
